1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a method for searching for an electronic book (e-book) in a portable terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a device and a method for searching for an e-book in a portable terminal, which can conveniently manage and search for a plurality of e-books in a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to developments in internet technology and digital technology, books are now being published in a digital form. Books that are published in a digital form are referred to as an electronic book (e-book).
The e-book has a number of advantages. For example, the e-book does not consume publishing costs and publishing materials, such as a paper and an ink, there is no concern whether the e-book is in stock, and the price of the e-book is low due to there not being distribution costs. Accordingly, it is expected that the e-book will be widely used in the digital era. While the present market share of the e-book is considerably small, the number of published e-books has been increasing day by day. Thus, it is anticipated that the e-book will represent a considerable share in the future book market.
In addition to the advantages of the e-book as discussed above, the e-book has a characteristic in that when a revised edition is published, it is possible to separately print and publish the revised part, thereby addressing the inconvenience of having to buy a new paper book when a revised edition of an existing paper book is published. In addition, it is possible to provide a reader with a large amount of information with lower prices.
In order to use the e-book, the reader installs an e-book program in a computer and executes the e-book program whenever he/she desires to read the e-book. The e-book program can be installed in a Handheld Personal Computer (HPC), a palm Personal Computer (PC), and a portable device, such as a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and a portable terminal, as well as in a desktop computer and a notebook computer.
When the reader desires to read the e-book stored in a portable terminal in which the e-book program is installed, the reader generally searches for the corresponding e-book through a scrolling action.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are views illustrating an action for searching for an e-book in a portable terminal, according to the related art.
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the portable terminal displays e-books stored in the portable terminal without the specific categorization and the reader searches for the desired e-book through the scrolling action.
However, when the portable terminal stores a large number of e-books, the reader has to inconveniently perform the scrolling action numerous times in order to search for the desired e-book.